Expansion pak relocation troubles

[bentomo]

I've mostly relocated the expansion pak on my n64. I triple checked all of the lines on the pak with a multimeter to check for shorts, multimeter says there are absolutely no shorts. Now then when I turn it on I get no video.

The only thing I could thing of that's wrong is it's in sleep mode or fried from one of the previous shorts before I fixed them and double checked them.

Also I didn't connect the two copper ground panels at the bottom of the back of the expansion pak. Which are just supposed to be ground.

So any other ideas of what may be happening?

(by the way this n64 and pak were working perfectly yesterday and none of the traces were ripped off)

 

[XCVG]

How long are the wires? They have to be really short or it doesn't work.

 

[eurddrue]

What rev is your board? if it is a low rev board you could solder the RAM straight on 8)

 

[bentomo]

The wire is about 6 mm. And I forgot how to tell what revision the board is, i says 1996, 1997 and was an original black one.
And you don't mean replace the ic's do you? Because I don't have a heat gun (or whatever it was the blows hot air) I also don't want to buy a second expansion pak. Plus I would still have to relocate the jumper pak.

 

[eurddrue]

The wire is about 6 mm. And I forgot how to tell what revision the board is, i says 1996, 1997 and was an original black one.
And you don't mean replace the ic's do you? Because I don't have a heat gun (or whatever it was the blows hot air) I also don't want to buy a second expansion pak. Plus I would still have to relocate the jumper pak.

Rev is above the cartslot. And, replacing it is very easy, you really just set it on the contacts and heat it with your soldering iron. But never mind that idea, you already tore off the connector thing.

 

[bentomo]

Says it's revision 4.

And anyway, it's not putting it in the I couldn't do, it's removing the old 16meg one.

 

[Basement_Modder]

With a REV-4 the direct RAM relocation is perfectly do-able, You just need patience. Also, your wires need to be 1.5" (approx. 3cm) or less in order to work. Also-check your fuses. One may be blown on the board.

 

[bentomo]

So how does the ram replacement work?

Is it just replacing the existing ram with two expansion pak ram ics? (like daftmike did) And then just using a jumper pak which cn be cut down small instead of relocating it?

 

[Basement_Modder]

So how does the ram replacement work?

Is it just replacing the existing ram with two expansion pak ram ics? (like daftmike did) And then just using a jumper pak which cn be cut down small instead of relocating it?

Either that or directly soldering resistors/ making jumper pak connections by hand. Nobody has done that yet, though.

 

[eurddrue]

So how does the ram replacement work?

Is it just replacing the existing ram with two expansion pak ram ics? (like daftmike did) And then just using a jumper pak which cn be cut down small instead of relocating it?

Either that or directly soldering resistors/ making jumper pak connections by hand. Nobody has done that yet, though.

That's because there is no "easy" way of going about it. You can't just solder them on, you have to recreate the jumper pak, only smaller, do I make sense?

 

[bentomo]

Why would I have to recreate the jumper pak?

Anyway, I've been trying to figure out a way to remove the ic's from my fried n64 board ad I can't figure out how.

 

[eurddrue]

The ram? It has to be for MB ram otherwise it will not recreate the expansion pak, it will just function like a n64 with a jumper pak in. And, I was talking to basement, not you

 

[Basement_Modder]

Take a soldering iron (30 watt, 15 watt not hot enough) and touch it to a pin until shiny. do this for every pin. Now place desoldering braid over the entire row of pins and slowly drag iron across it. Try to lift the RAM chip off the board while doing this. (use a tiny flathead screwdriver.) Repeat for 4 pins on other side. You're done.

To put a chip on: place chip on board, hold it in place with something. (glue, clamp, etc.) and make sure its lined up right. Now tin your iron (15 watt fine this time) and drag it across the pins a few times until they're soldered on. Now use desoldering braid on all the pins that have bridges on them. That's it. Alternatively, you could use a hot air iron. They're easy+cheap to make.

The ram? It has to be for MB ram otherwise it will not recreate the expansion pak, it will just function like a n64 with a jumper pak in. And, I was talking to basement, not you

I know that.

 

[eurddrue]

*Can'tSayThisOnTV*it. the first post was talking to you, the second to thewise1.

 

[ShockSlayer]

Okay there are 2 things you can do: Remove th port, and connect the EXP pack to the pins using really short wires, or, you can remove the existing ram(only if there are two chips), and then replace the 2 2MB chips with 2 4MB chips. ShockSlayer conveys his knoledge:

TO remove the existing ram on the n64(the 2 2MB chips), Desolder the 2 sets of 2 pins holding theram on(the side without all the pins) and then bennd the ram back and forth until it comes off by haveing all the pins break off, do not use for to remove them, just bend a bunch and be patient.

At this point you can try to esolder all those little pins left behind using braid, or a desoldering iron, but I didn't do that, and you'll see why.

To remove the 4MB ram from the n64's expansion pack or an n64 with a 4MB chip, use a blowtorch or something along those lines on the other side of the pack/n64(IE, not the side with the ram on it) and then heat up/burn the area that coresponds to the ram on the other side. THe ram including its ocntacts should get hot enough to pop off, no bending or desoldering required.

Then, align the ram with the pins, and solder it on with a soldering iron(dont use any solder, reuse the solder on the n64.)

SS

 

[bentomo]

Thanks guys, I'm going to try the relocation one more time, assuming the board isn't fried. If that doesn't work then I'll pick up a new n64 and try the replacement method.

I think I'll just pick up a hot air gun on ebay if they're cheap, or if I can find a blowtorch.

should be much easier than relocation. I just hope I didn't waste a board. I thought of this method before I started but I thought it would be harder. silly me

 

[bentomo]

Oh and by the way, there's no other modifications to do to the n64? Just the jumper pak inserted and with the replacement it should recognize it as an expansion pak right? I remember daftmike said it worked no problem.

 

[Basement_Modder]

Yep, that's it. I am currently trying to directly attach the resistors/ bridges to m N64p. If successful, I will post all the connections.

 

[bentomo]

That would be an incredibly small board.

I was thinking about making your own jumper pak a couple days ago and it seems very doable, the only thing on the back of the jumper pak is resistor packs and capacitors.

 

[Basement_Modder]

Exactly. I have been recording the values on all of these with a multimeter. From there, I found what pins connect to what other pins, then bridge them on the N64 board with kynar wire.